Through our Best of the Bunch series, we gave a recap on the Eurovision entries from 2006 to 2015 and gave you the opportunity to choose your Best of the Bunch. As you may remember, the current Best of the Bunch winners were put into our ‘Ultimate Eurovision’ but it’s time to see which of the latest three entries have remained as your favourites! In our Best of the Bunch: The Trials series, we are going to recap the entries from a certain nation starting with 2016 and continuing through to the latest Eurovision season of 2018. Your job is to simply enjoy the music, and vote for your Best of the Bunch winner!
Today we are focusing on a nation that hasn’t exactly had the best run lately, and that’s FYR Macedonia. It’s been a rough few years for the nation, having qualified to the final only once in 11 years. Despite that, it just wouldn’t be the same without them, so today we are celebrating their last three entries, starting with 2016 and concluding with the most recent from 2018. After we recap the entries, it will be up to you to decide which of the latest three entries is your Best of the Bunch!
FYR Macedonia 2016
Remember how we said that FYR Macedonia had qualified once during a period of 11 years? Well the artist behind the qualifying entry was Kaliopi and she was selected to return in 2016 in the hopes that she could bring the nation back to the final. Her song this time around was called Dona and was a ballad style song performed in national language. It was less rock oriented compared to her previous entry Crno I Belo, but her vocals were still left to shine at Eurovision. A simple stage performance also helped to highlight her vocals but in the end it just wasn’t enough. Despite not qualifying for the final, FYR Macedonia finished in a close 11th place with 88 points.
FYR Macedonia 2017
The following year, FYR Macedonia turned to a Eurovision song writing dream team to pen their entry Dance Alone, and it was to be Jana Burčeska who would perform the entry. After quite a few years of failing to qualify, the pressure was on, and after the song was released, there was an overall positive reception. The stage performance was simple but modern, but unfortunately FYR Macedonia fell to the same fate and failed to qualify, finishing in 15th place with 69 points. Not all was lost though, as we found out through her postcard that Jana was pregnant, and during a green room interview, her partner proposed to her!
FYR Macedonia 2018
That brings us to the most recent Macedonian entry, which was once again chosen through an internal selection. Late in the game we found out that it would be the group Eye Cue who would represent the nation with their song Lost and Found. It was an interesting entry that was definitely different to what we had seen from the nation, and as you may expect upon listening to the song, it had mixed reviews. At Eurovision, unfortunately the Macedonian curse of staging came out to play, as the stage performance was chaotic and didn’t match the vibe of the music video. Being a polarising song to start with, it limited the chances of qualification, and that was the fate of Lost and Found. The song finished in 18th with 24 points.
So now you’ve seen all three performances, it’s time to vote for your Best of the Bunch!
If you want more Best of the Bunch from FYR Macedonia, check out our original series:
If you want to check out who made our Ultimate Eurovision, check it out here: